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Saturday, February 22, 2014

The Nutrition Debate #186: “Your Diet is Very Restrictive” Part 2

I
realized after writing over 1,000 words for the last column, I had told only half
the story. Yes, my diet is “very restrictive,” including in several additional major ways I didn’t mention:
1) I eschew (as much as possible) all vegetable and seed oils, especially
polyunsaturated soy bean oil, corn oil, Canola, sunflower and cottonseed oil,
etc.; and 2) I avoid practically all grains, especially wheat, barley and rye
(the primary gluten grains), and everything made from them. That means I eat
very little fried food and virtually nothing that has been made with flour,
including most gravies. And I know I feel better for it.

Instead,
I eat monounsaturated oils (olive oil, and occasionally half an avocado with
vinaigrette dressing) and saturated fats (especially coconut oil and MCT oil in
homemade mayo). I select fatty cuts of meat (beef and pork) and fatty cold
water fish. I eat chicken with the skin on, sardines in olive oil, and fish oil
(2 grams a day for their essential Omega 3s (DHA & EPA). I also eat lots of
eggs (18/week) from pastured hens. Forget about dietary cholesterol! I wish I could
say I ate beef from grass-fed, grass-finished beef and even butter from grass
fed cows, but alas, I cannot. Marriage, they say, is a compromise. I also eat
offal (organ meats) once a week, but I have to prepare them myself (on Sunday
mornings).

Is
this a challenge? Sure, at times, especially when dining out or entertaining at
home. In restaurants the workaround I have developed is often to order from the
appetizer menu. Sometimes I will order a salad and an appetizer, or two
appetizers. That way, I avoid the proverbial starch that seems to accompany
most main dishes. Of course, almost every kitchen will gladly give a double
portion of vegetables instead of a vegetable and a starch, but I don’t want a
double of anything. It’s too much food. Small meals, remember? Also, when you
order from the appetizer menu, you don’t get a bread basket. That makes it
easier too. If my wife orders an entrée, and the bread is placed between us, I
move it to her side of the table.

At
home, the workaround for all the “forbidden goodies” in the house is not to
open the freezer door (where my wife’s ice cream stash is), or the cabinets
where chips and crackers are stored. Out-of-sight/out-of-mind really works for
me. My (our?) eyes are powerful “appetite” (hormone) stimulators, seriously. I
bet there’ve been more than a few scientific papers written on how visual
stimulation excites the brain (think sex, guys) and prepares the salivary
glands, etc. I think I’ve read more than a few Stephan Guyenet (Whole Health Source) and J.
Stanton (gnolls.org) columns about this.

So,
these two additional ways in which what I eat are “very restrictive” is
actually only one. That’s because all grains are carbohydrates and would have
been “verboten” anyway. This carbohydrate aspect applies to the overweight and
obese population, as well as all the diagnosed pre-diabetics and type 2
diabetics; but does it apply to the other 30% of us (“…the rest of us who don’t
even know we’re pre-diabetic”)? Maybe not, in a strict sense. I would, if I
could, still eat rice and starchy tubers (potatoes, yams, etc), but alas, I
cannot tolerate carbohydrates. You, if you are overweight or obese (especially omental, or
pre-diabetic or diabetic, would do well to avoid them too, because you too are insulin resistant.

But
the shift in the balance of saturated to polyunsaturated fats over the last
50-100 years is wholly unrelated to
carbohydrates. Their contribution to chronic inflammation is an area of great
interest in the independent
scientific community (as contrasted with the corrupt science in
agribusiness/academic/government sponsored science cabal). Of particular
interest in the very heavy shift in the Omega 6 (linoleic acid) to Omega 3
(linolenic acid) balance in our diet from roughly 1: 1 to as much as 30:1 over
this time period. That’s why it is important to seriously curtail the
consumption of vegetable and seed oils (linoleic acid) and increase the Omega
3s from fish oil. But you can’t “fix” this problem with fish oil alone; you
have to cut back sharply on the polyunsaturated vegetable and seed oils you eat,
starting with fried foods.

It
is important to eliminate fried foods because oils, already damaged in
manufacturing by pressure, heat and chemicals, are then reheated (often
repeatedly) to high temperatures (boiling!) in the fryer. These oils are also
easily damaged by exposure to daylight and quickly become rancid. Saturated
fats do not. So, cook with butter, coconut oil and lard, not vegetable oils!
And use olive oil as a salad dressing or a drizzle to add flavor and richness,
and you will eat well indeed.

As
Dwight Lundell, MD, quoted in #185 a few days ago in Jimmy Moore’s good book, Cholesterol Clarity (pg 35), said, “The
population will become split between the smart and the dumb. The smart ones
will begin taking their health into their own hands because they’re already
seeing that what we are doing now is not working.” Moore then commented as
follows:

“I
am a huge proponent of people taking responsibility for their own health. We
are all unique individuals with different needs and yet we are treated like
lemmings by the medical profession when it comes to our health. I get why so
many people abdicate personal responsibility with their health; it’s so much
easier to just do what we’re told. But that approach clearly doesn’t work:
Science changes all the time, and medical and nutrition specialists simply
can’t keep up. How can they possible have all the answers? There’s no way
around it. If you want to be healthy, it’s up to you to make it happen! Educate
yourself, and then act on what you learn. You must be the final arbiter of your
own health.”

So, what are you waiting
for? Want to be healthy? Take charge and change what you eat. You will see a
world of difference.

3 comments:

Great article and I agree. There is no doubt that one's health is their own responsibility nowadays with all the misinformation and downright bad information. My brother is treating his multiple myloma with diet (just meat and eggs). He only goes to the specialist once a year for a blood test. No progression of the cancer, it's been at a standstill for over 5 years and he's had no other treatment. No toxic drugs or treatments.

About Me

I was diagnosed a Type 2 diabetic in 1986. I started a Very Low Carb diet (Atkins Induction) in 2002 to lose weight. I didn’t realize at the time that it would put my diabetes in clinical remission, or that I would be able to give up almost all of my oral diabetes meds. I also didn’t understand that, as I lost weight and continued to eat Very Low Carb, my blood lipids would dramatically improve (doubling my HDL and cutting my triglycerides by 2/3rds) and that my blood pressure would drop from 130/90 to 110/70 on the same meds.
Over the years I changed from Atkins to the Bernstein Diet (designed for diabetics) and, altogether lost 170 pounds. I later regained some and then lost some. As long as I eat Very Low Carb, I am not hungry and I have lots of energy. And I no longer have any of the indications of Metabolic Syndrome.
My goal, as long as I have excess body fat, is to remain continuously in a ketogenic state, both for blood glucose regulation and continued weight loss. I expect that this regimen will continue to provide the benefits of reduced systemic inflammation, improved blood lipids and lower blood pressure as well.